1770 – James Smyth, MP for Dundalk, is killed in a riding accident.

1777 – Birth of Admiral William Brown (also known in Spanish as Guillermo Brown) was born in Foxford, Co Mayo and died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 3 March 1857.

1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Rebel southern column marches through Sculloge Gap, into Co Carlow. Rebel northern column marches to camp at Croghan.

1798 – Execution of John Kelly, also known as ‘Kelly of Killane’. He was one of the leaders of the rebel victory at the Battle of Three Rocks which led to the capture of Wexford town but was later seriously wounded while leading a rebel column at the Battle of New Ross. Kelly’s column of 800 men attacked and broke through Ross’s “Three Bullet Gate” and proceeded into the town itself. After initial success, they were eventually beaten back by British troops and Kelly was wounded in the leg. He was moved to Wexford to recuperate but after the fall of Wexford on 21 June was dragged from his bed, tried and sentenced to death.

1866 – Archbishop Paul Cullen of Co Kildare becomes the first Irishman elevated to Cardinal of the Catholic Church.

1897 – James Connolly is arrested and detained overnight for organising a series of protests over Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

1911 – George V and Mary of Teck are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1921 – King George V addressed the first session of the parliament of Northern Ireland, calling on “all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment, and good will.”

1922 – British General Henry Hughes Wilson, who had been military advisor to the Northern Ireland government, was shot dead by IRA volunteers Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan in London, in reprisal for attacks on Catholics in Ulster; two policeman and a passerby were also wounded.

1923 – Michael Radford of the South Wexford Brigade IRA (Anti-Treaty) is shot dead by Free State soldiers at Ballybuick, Tomhaggard, Wexford.

1930 – Birth of RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, in Dublin.

1932 – Eucharistic Congress in Dublin begins. The high point is when over a million people gather for Mass in Phoenix Park.

1940 – The last tram to Donnybrook, Dublin leaves.

1958 – Birth of Bill Shipsey in Co Waterford. He is a Barrister, and the founder and chair of Art for Amnesty – Amnesty International’s global artist engagement programme. Shipsey joined Amnesty in the late 1970s, inspired in part by the activism of entertainers, who performed at the Monty-Python-esque ‘Secret Policeman’s Ball’ benefit show. As founder of Art for Amnesty, Shipsey has brought together a number of world-renowned artists for musical projects that benefit Amnesty. https://youtu.be/rou_8F9o-zk

1959 – Birth of jockey, Michael Kinane, in Killenaule, Co Tipperary.

1968 – The Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) staged a protest by blocking the Lecky Road in the Bogside area of Derry.

1970 – Bernadette Devlin, Member of Parliament (MP), lost her appeal against a six-month prison sentence imposed for taking part in riots in Derry. She was arrested on 26 June 1970.

1971 – A system of committees to oversee control of key government departments was proposed by Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner. This system was seen as a way of providing a role for opposition parties at Stormont. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) initially welcomed the proposal but events were to result in the withdrawal of the SDLP from Stormont.

1972 – The IRA announced that it would call a ceasefire from 26 June 1972 provided that there is a ‘reciprocal response’ from the security forces. At approximately 12.00 pm, four men were shot and injured in the Glen Road area of west Belfast. On 1 December 2015 the PSNI listed this shooting as one of nine incidents it was investigating in relation to the activities of the British Army’s Military Reaction Force (MRF).

1973 – Hilton Edwards and Dr. Micheál Mac Liammóir are given the Freedom of the city of Dublin.

1974 – A Catholic civilian was shot dead by a British soldier following an altercation in Olympic Drive, Strabane, Co Tyrone. The following day the soldier involved in the shooting was charged with murder. This was the first British soldier to be charged with murder during the conflict.

1974 – A RUC officer and British soldier were shot dead by the IRA in separate incidents in Belfast.

1981 – Mickey Devine begins his hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh prison. He was an Irish founding member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and died on 20 August after 60 days on hunger strike.

1997 – Orange parades pass off quietly amid growing fears of a further stand-off at Drumcree.

1997 – Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), Martin McGuinness, addressed SF’s annual Wolfe Tone commemoration and called for the “removal of decommissioning as an obstacle” to SF entering the all-party talks process.

1998 – An urgent appeal is made to Ireland’s drivers to slow down after eight young people lose their lives in a black weekend on the country’s roads.

1998 – It was reported that Chief Constable of the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan, had said in an interview that he would be prepared to force the Drumcree march down the Garvaghy Road regardless of the decision of the Parades Commission. Flanagan later said the remarks had been taken out of context.

1999 – Patrick Magee, who had been convicted of taking part in the Brighton bombing on 12 October 1984, was freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement after serving 14 years of a 34 year sentence. Magee was the 277th prisoner to be released on licence under the terms of the early release scheme.

1999 – Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said the Northern Ireland Executive must be established before paramilitary weapons were decommissioned. Ahern said it would be possible to persuade paramilitaries to disarm only ‘in the context of a confidence in functioning democratic institutions’.

1999 – David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), called on British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to sack Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam.

2001 – There was another Loyalist blockade of the road to the Catholic Holy Cross Girls’ Primary School in Ardoyne, north Belfast. RUC officers again prevented children and parents from attempting to enter the school through the front gate. Some of the school’s pupils entered the school throughout the grounds of another school.

2002 – U2’s Edge marries longtime girlfriend Morleigh Steinberg in a Jewish ceremony at the Garden of Eze in the south of France. Bono is the best man.

2013 – Andrea Begley wins The Voice UK on the BBC singing contest. Born in Pomeroy, Co Tyrone, she managed to see off the competition to launch her own music career. Begley’s debut album, The Message, was released in October 2013, and peaked at number seven in the UK charts. She is the niece of Irish country music singer Philomena Begley.

2015 – Death of hurler Jimmy Doyle (born in Thurles, Co Tipperary). One of the most highly rated players in the history of the game; he was also among the most accomplished, having assembled extraordinary career statistics of six All-Irelands, nine Munster medals, seven national leagues and eight Railway Cups.

Image | Dún Aengus, Inis Mór, Aran Islands, Co Galway

#irishhistory #ireland #irelandinspires